The Impact of Coworker Support on Employee Turnover in the Hospitality Industry

Employee turnover rates are among the highest for entry-level employees in the hospitality industry. Research focused on identifying the antecedents of turnover in this employment context has been limited, however. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined the impact of coworker support on turnover with a sample of 188 servers from a national restaurant chain. Specifically, this study assessed the impact of coworker instrumental support and coworker emotional support on turnover. The results demonstrated that coworker emotional support was negatively related to turnover. However, coworker instrumental support was positively related to turnover, counter to the hypothesized relationship. This counterintuitive finding leads us to consider the role of coworker support on turnover in a new light.